Display multi-layers list item in web-browser with supporting of concurrent multi-users

• US 20070198713A1
• Filed: 07/02/2004
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STT WebOS, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sheng Tsao, Ying Zou
• Inventors: Tsao, Sheng, Zou, Ying
• Granted Patent: US 7,945,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/168 Details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems, e.g. browsing and visualisation, 2d or 3d GUIs query results presentation G06F16/156
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0253 using browsers or web-pages for accessing management information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0266 using meta-data, objects or commands for formatting management information, e.g. using eXtensible markup language [XML]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/08 Configuration management of networks or network elements address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Computer user working environment has been evolved from punch card & paper tape to mouse click native window based in past few decades. This invention takes the course of this continuing evolution and creating a web based computer user work environment for a control management station and its associated systems on the network crossing Intranet, Internet or LAN. Therefore, users can access and manage the control management station and all its associated system through web browser on any other systems or devices. To establish a web based computer user work environment, the resources information on control management station and on associated systems on network need to be collected and convert them to standard structured format for web based communication and further displaying them in web browser. These information need to be collected by control management station at its and the associated systems'"'"' boot up time or at the time when user login and request to access and manage these resources. To best present all resources to users and provide users a flexible environment to access and manage these resources in web environment, a traditional multi-layered item list can be creatively deployed in this web based computer user work environment.

Claims

1. The method of creating a web based computer user work environment (WCUWE) of CCDSVM consists following steps:

a) Console support software modules of control management station collect all major resources information on control management station and store them in memory or permanent storage of control management station.

b) Console support software modules of control management station identify all system units on the network and store the major resource information of system units in memory or permanent storage of control management station.

c) Console support software modules of control management station convert the said collected information to standard structured format for web communication and display.

d) Console support software modules of control management station provide responses to users when users login WCUWE or after login and request to access and operate these resources information from any web browser on remote system or on control management station.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step b) further comprise the steps of automatically identifying and discovering the system units of CCDSVM and further constructing the service pools by organizing the system units into one or multiple groups based on group ID of the system unit. The said group ID is contained in a packet, which system unit sent to control management station during system unit boot up via communication link between them. The said information of the system units including their IP address, system name, system type and their group ID etc. becomes a resource of network information on control management station.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein major resources be storage devices, network cards, file system, folders, various applications or data files, user profiles, and all other various devices on the systems. The said resources are collected at a time when a system boots up or when users request to access, operate, or manage the said resources. Further, the said resources can be stored in memory with various forms such as simple list of array, linked list, double linked list, hash table, tree structure etc. In addition, the said resources may also be stored in various form of the database such as in commercial database on the market, in a plain text file, in a binary record file, or in any other form. The said various devices can be terminal monitor or video &

audio recorder devices such as camcorder, or keyboard &

mouse, or wireless devices and all others.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein standard structured format for web communicating and displaying is composed by the specific syntax of the specialized markup languages for web, which include HTML, XML, DHTML, XHTML, WML and others.

Multiple Users Session and Multi-Tasks Supports:

5. The methods of claim 1, wherein step d) further includes the steps of multiple user sessions support and for each user session having multiple concurrent tasking support upon users'"'"' request.

User Security and Authentication Profiles:

6. The multi-session and multi-tasks of claim 5 further requires that

a) The privileged user must set other users security authentication profiles before allowing other users to login to WCUWE of CCDSVM and to perform various tasks.

b) The first privileged user profile is setup at the time of installation of the software of WCUWE.

c) The said user security profiles can be stored in memory with various forms such as simple list of array, linked list, double linked list, hash table, tree structure etc. In addition, the said user profiles also need to be stored on permanent storage in the form of the database such as the commercial database on the market, or in a plain text file, or in a binary record file, or in any other form. The said permanent storage could be disk or other storage media

d) The privileged user can setup the said user profile for other users from web browser after the privileged user login WCUWE of CCDSVM

e) The said user profile contains security attributes to determine the specific user is permitted to access from which remote system, to access which specific systems in CCDSVM, to permit what specific types of tasks on that specific system, and to access what specific files or folders or applications.

f) The said security attributes can be encoded into a security data structure, which each fields can be used to specify a unique characteristic security information.

Deploying multi-layered items list for managing resource in web based computer user work environment (WCUWE):

7. The method of claim 1 further includes the steps of deploying multi-layered items list (MLIL) during executing tasks generated by users when they interacting with targeted system resources in WCUWE of CCDSVM, which includes:

(a) Create MLIL in memory.

(b) Bind and link the associated information with MLIL.

(c) Convert the information of MLIL into standard web format.

(d) Manage the MLIL during users interaction with MLIL.

(e) Delete MLIL in memory.

8. The deploying multi-layered items list of claim 7 further includes the said multi-layered items list (MLIL) is a logically organized information list with multiple entry and with certain order. The said each entry of MLIL contains an item and each items may contain another layer of list of items, where each items may represent a physical resources or information of the computer systems or other devices. The said MLIL may contain at least one item (node) and as many as multiple hundreds or thousands items (nodes).

9. The deploying multi-layered items list of claim 7 step (a) further includes steps that the said memory management module of console support software creates a MLIL in memory for each login users and makes association between each MLIL and the actual targeted resources during executing each user'"'"'s requested task. The said MLIL is created and initiated whenever the said user made request for a task to access or operate the said resources from the web browser. The said tasks may be generated by user through select a node on MLIL or through select an operation from operation menu by for example mouse clicking or other mechanism. The said MLIL can be in any form of a list structure such as a simple array list, link list, double link list, various tree structure, or hashed table, etc..

10. The deploying multi-layered items list of claim 7 step (b) further includes steps that

a) The console support software modules of control management station bind the said MLIL with the appropriate attributes and corresponding graphic or text representation to each node (item) on MLIL of said task for the purpose of displaying. The said attributes for each nodes include the node name, type, level, total number of sub-nodes etc., which reflect the nature and the actual organization of the resources.

b) The said each nodes of MLIL of the said task may also be linked with an operation menu. The said operation menu could be a web-based drop-down menu or a non-drop-down selective menu.

11. The deploying multi-layered item list of claim 7 step c) further includes steps that

a) The console support software modules of control management station convert the said MLIL of said task and all its associated said attributes, corresponding graphic or text representation, and the operation menu into the standard structured format for web communication and displaying. Therefore, the said MLIL can be viewed either by web-browser on control management station or on client host or console host.

12. The deploying multi-layered item list of claim 7 step d) further includes steps that

a) The memory management module of the console support software of control management station may modify the said MLIL of the said task upon executing user'"'"'s requested task of viewing, accessing or operating the resources on targeted system. The said modification of MLIL may result reducing or expanding the MLIL in corresponding to the tasks of deleting or adding resources on the target system.

b) The said memory management module of console support software on control management station keeps tracks of memory usage and status for said MLIL of the said tasks whenever the MLIL got modified. Therefore, all processes or threads created in same user session for executing the said tasks can effectively share the dynamically modified MLIL with a consistent view throughout the each users'"'"' entire login session.

c) The said memory management module of console support software may need to translate and map the initial logical memory address of said MLIL of the said tasks to another logical memory address. Therefore, the different processes or threads of the same user session can effectively share and access the same actual memory object of the said MLIL of an user session.

13. The deploying multi-layered item list of claim 7, step e) further includes steps that

a) The said memory management module of console support software of control management station will delete the said MLIL of said task whenever either the user logout from WCUWE of CCDSVM or user try to access a totally not related another resources on a targeted system.

b) If a MLIL is deleted due to the user access the said another resources on a targeted system, a new MLIL shall be created and the steps specified in claim 7 can be repeated.

Deploying multi-layered items list for the automatically &

dynamically provisioned groups of systems in WCUWE of CCDSVM;

14. The methods of claim 2 further include the steps of displaying, accessing, and operating the said multiple service groups of system units and their resources by using the MLIL.

a) The console support software modules of control management station creates the MLIL in memory during executing the task of the user'"'"'s requests for accessing the said network information on control management station.

b) The said MLIL being created and ordered with top-down fashion, which has system-group at top level, system unit nodes at second level under each group nodes, and various devices or file system, and all other resources nodes start from third level under system unit node and so on.

c) The console support software modules of control management station may associate with a different type of operation menu and bind with various attributes and graphic or text information for each node on said MLIL with different level or type during task executing.

d) The console support software modules of control management station convert all said network information associated with said MLIL on control management station to standard structured format for web communication and displaying.

e) The console support software modules of control management station execute the requested tasks on target system and provide response back to user'"'"'s web browser by transmitting the converted standard structured format via data flow path along with communication link of the CCDSVM.

f) The said steps a) to e) of this claim may be repeated as long as user continue to access the said network information of control management station.

15. The automatic and dynamic provisioned groups of claim 14, further include that

a) The WCUWE of CCDSVM provides users efficient way of accessing to the said network information of CCDSVM. From said network information, user can select to access and operate resources for a specific system group, and further down to select an individual system unit, and further down to select an specific devices or file system on each individual system unit and goes on further and further.

b) At system unit level, the WCUWE of CCDSVM can execute the prominent task whenever user request to check targeted system status, to shutdown or reboot targeted system, to change usage of targeted system etc. within entire CCDSVM by mouse clicking on node of MLIL.

c) At storage device level, the WCUWE of CCDSVM can execute the prominent tasks whenever user request to create, delete, merge, or split storage volume on storage media such as disk, and to create file system on a selected storage volume for targeted system of CCDSVM by mouse clicking on node of MLIL.

d) At file system level, the WCUWE of CCDSVM can execute the task whenever user request to mount and un-mount file system, create folder structure, move data file into folder, transfer file from one targeted system to another, and to perform all file and folder operations for entire targeted system of CCDSVM by mouse clicking on node of MLIL.

The Global Scalable Secure File Server and WCUWE of CCDSVM:

16. The automatic and dynamic provisioned groups of item c) and item d) of claim 15 and the user security and authentication profile of claim 6 further include that

a) The WCUWE of CCDSVM provides users to create and manage a virtual file server on top of group of system units and control management station, where each system unit and control management station provides one or multiple file systems on top of their native local storage media such as disks.

b) The said virtual file server can be automatically and dynamically expanded, and be scale up along with adding more system units crossing Intranet, Internet, or LAN whenever there is a needs.

c) The users can access and manage the said virtual file server from web browser anywhere on the net after a successful login. Further, user can access or manage a specific file system, file folder, or file either on system unit or control management station by walking through the said MLIL of the said network information on control management station.

d) The said management of the said virtual file server includes storage volumes creating, deleting, merging, splitting, and displaying on storage media such as disk drives, which is local to each system unit or control management station.

e) The said management of file system, file folder, and file include to create file system, mount file system, create file folder structure, and delete or add or copy &

past, rename and move for files or folders. In addition the said management also include transfer files between systems of CCDSVM.

f) The said user access the virtual file server includes the software of CCDSVM transferring the file from target system to client host and further to be accessed by user.

g) The said privileged user can easily to set the user access control permission for a specific folder or file on a specific system within CCDSVM by walking through the said MLIL of the said network information on control management station. After setup security access control on a file folder or file for a specific user, the information of the said user access control permission can be stored in said user security profile.

The Path of Data Flow in CCDSVM

17. The CCDSVM provide flexible data paths between control management station, system units, console host and client host, which comprises:

a) Data path 1, with which the data flow through communication link between the web handling software (web server &

console support software) of control management station and the web browser of client host or console host or control management station. The communication protocol used for transmitting data through said data path I could be HTTP, WAP, SOAP, or any other suitable protocols for web communication, which could successfully transmit the data on web.

b) Data Path 2, with which data flow through communication link between console support software of control management station and service modules of system units. The communication protocol used for transmitting data through said data path 2 could be IP based or non-IP-based protocols depend on the actual requirement of efficiently transmitting the data.

c) The data path 3, with which the data flow through communication link between service modules of system units 3 and the web browser of client host or console host or control management station. The communication protocol used for transmitting data through said data path 3 could be HTTP, WAP, SOAP, or any other suitable protocols for web communication, which could successfully transmit the data on web.

d) The data path 4, with which the data flow directly through communication link between service modules of system unit 3 and service modules of another system unit 3. The communication protocols for the said data path 3 could be IP-base or any suitable non-IP-based protocol.

The Variation of CCDSVM and its WCUWE

18. The CCDSVM could be degenerated into a single system (the control management station standby itself) when there is no any system unit join the CCDSVM through the network. In this case, the WCUWE still works for control management station, which means user from web-browser of console host or client host or control management station can access and operate the entire resource on control management station.

22. The software of CCDSVM of claim 21 and the variation of CCDSVM and its WCUWE of claim 18-20 further include that with various configuration of the CCDSVM, the software of CCDSVM may also have certain variation depends on the configuration and the application.

19. A CCDSVM may have client host and system unit to have equal role if both of them configured with identical service modules (which use to be only on system unit) and web browser (which use to be only on client host). Therefore, users, who are local to either client host or system unit and with right permission, can access other systems within CCDSVM.

20. A CCDSVM may have client host, which has its own specialized service modules (not those service modules on system unit) for non-web based accessing.

The Software of WCUWE of CCDSVM

21. The software of WCUWE can be implemented with any suitable or a combination of any suitable programming languages such C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, HTML, XML, etc., which means that software of WCUWE is programming language independent. The software of WCUWE may comprise:

a) Web server interface modules of console support software on control management station.

b) Control management modules of console support software on control management station.

c) Web server software on control management station. The said web server software could be an commercial software on the marketing such as Apache or MS IIS or others, and also could be a proprietary software. If the said web server interface modules of control management station provides compatible functionality with said Web server software, then there is no need for web server software.

d) Service software modules on system unit. The said service software modules may also consist of a said web server software or a proprietary software module, which provide equivalent functionality of the said web server software.

e) Web browser on console host or on control management station or on client host 10. The said web browser could be a commercial web browser on the market such as MS IE, or Netscape, and also could be proprietary software modules.